The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1887-05-11
Sound Views,

Mr. Edward Atkinson gave lecture
recently before the Central Labor Ly-
ceum of Boston, in which he discussed
very sensibly the relations of capital
and labor, and we are informed that
his auditors were much impressed with
the force of his views. One of his
ideas is that the "squires " of work,
that is, the brain-workers, will get ahead
of the " Knights of Labor" in the long
run, though the former may have to
depend on work for his living as well
as the latter. But the man who works
with his head will get greater compen-
sation for his work, and in many cases
will need to work fewer hours. Mr..
Atkinson knows of no other way to
shorten the hours of labor than to "do
more work while you do work" The
only way to get ahead is " to do the
best you know how" and no organiza-
ton formed for the purpose of getting
rid of work will ever succeed. PRO
duce more," he says, and you will
have more to divide. If you work
fewer hours, and thus produce less of
the things required for the satisfaction
of human wants, there will be less to
divide, and then if few of you should
get more than you do now, they could
get it only by robbing other working
men and women who could get less
than they do now" 1t is the price of
the product that fixes the rate both of
wages and profits. Nine-tenths of the
people who buy the goods are working
people. "When you put up the price
of what other workmen buy and do
not put up the price of what they make
then you tax them to get better living
yourselves. This is unfair. If the
work in factories and workshops is cut
down to eight hours per day then the
product is cut down and the price
raised. He then went on:
tell you, my friends, when you are talk
ing about the wages due to laborers you
had better measure the wages due to cap
italists, to inventors, to men of science, to
the men who work with their heads. 1t is
to them you owe the fact that you can now
get twice as much out of ten hours work
as men and women could get fifty years ago
out of twelve, thirteen, fourteen. Labor
without capital counts one in production,
and with capital it sometimes counts one
hnplraI Can tba Ia hupdra1 m tba
capital as well as the one? No If they
could you would all work on the co-opera-
tive plan. All this talk about wage slavery
is nonsense. There is no slave labor, no
compulsion in this country now, unless it is
the compulson of the Knights of Labor,
and that is pretty much played out already.
You see | talk plainly; that's what you
want, isn't it? You want facts, and | am
going to give them to you. l say that for
every cent that almost every great capitalist
receives workmen are saved ten cents, more
or less, somehow or other. | will except
the capitalists who make rum. If you will
have the rum they will make it for you and
you will waste your money on it, That is
your lookout and theirs. / don't make rum
and ! don't sell it, say that every cap
talist who puts his money into useful work
into cloth, food, fuel, metals and the like
saves every workmen great deal more
than he takes from him The poor are not
poor because the rich are rich The poor
are not poor because capital takes bigger
share than it ought. The poor are great
deal less poor and great deal less numer-
Gus than they would be except for the
service of capital, of which they enjoy the
! greater part of the benefit. The poor are
not poor because they have no land. Land
won't save a man who doesn't know how to
use it. There are 300, 600 Indians in this coun-
try, about as many as there ever were. They
used to own all the land, and they still own
! 150,000,000 acres of it. 1t comes to 800 acres
apiece for every Indian, every squaw and
every papoose. How much good does it do
them?
Mr.. Atkinson gave some facts and
figures to illustrate his views. Among
others, he reproduced the following:
AS / said the other day, in a meeting of
this kind, if you don't want to pay Mr..
Vanderbilt for bringing your barrel of flour
from Chicago to Boston you needn't; you
can wheel it yourself. ! had rather pay
Mr.. Vanderbilt to carry my trunk or my
barrel; he can do it cheaper. Suppose the
old man did make $10O,0O0,O0O out of the
job; he saved me a dollar for every cent
that he made out of me; he saved you a
dollar for every cent that he got by moving
the flour from the great prairies of the West
down here for you to eat. How could you
do without such men?
He closed with some observations
upon the meanness of calling man a
scab who simply asked for the privilege
of earning his daily bread, and he
warned his hearers that this policy was
driving capital away from Massa-
chusetts.
VermOnt's Prosperity.